Speaker 1: This is the most dramatic podcast ever and iHeartRadio podcast.
Speaker 1: Chris Harrison and Lauren Zema, I am coming to you
Speaker 1: from our new office at Merritt Street Media, which hopefully
Speaker 1: you guys have found out about in prior podcasts and
Speaker 1: all the press that has dropped. LZ is at the
Speaker 1: home office in Austin, Texas. We are separated, but we
Speaker 1: are together in this podcast. But we are together because
Speaker 1: of the subject matter and our guests today, because we're
Speaker 1: talking Real house Wives of Salt Lake City.
Speaker 2: LZ.
Speaker 3: Yes, and you know you are now a Housewives fan,
Speaker 3: or at least you're about as much of a fan
Speaker 3: as I could get you to be.
Speaker 4: You watched about.
Speaker 3: Half the season of Real Housewives of Salt Lake City
Speaker 3: and then you tuned back in for like the reunion.
Speaker 4: I'm happy with that. That's as much as I was.
Speaker 1: Going to get.
Speaker 3: And you thought that this was some of the best
Speaker 3: reality TV you'd seen in a minute.
Speaker 4: And I think.
Speaker 3: That it is largely in part two, if not all,
Speaker 3: in part thanks to our guest today, the woman who
Speaker 3: some would call her a villain, now some would say
Speaker 3: she saved this franchise. Monica Garcia is joining us She
Speaker 3: came on the most recent season of Salt Lake City
Speaker 3: as the former assistant of former cast.
Speaker 4: Member Jen Shaw.
Speaker 3: If you don't know the cliffs notes is, you've probably
Speaker 3: seen the headlines that Real Housewives of Salt Lake City
Speaker 3: member Jen Shaw was convicted of fraud of elder people.
Speaker 3: She is now doing a time behind bars, and Monica
Speaker 3: came on as her former assistant. That's how she was introduced.
Speaker 3: She bonded with the women, and then, in like one
Speaker 3: of the biggest finales in housewives history that made headlines everywhere,
Speaker 3: it was revealed that in the past, Monica had also
Speaker 3: been part of or the other women accused her of
Speaker 3: being all of a housewif lives news coverage, gossip account,
Speaker 3: reality bontie.
Speaker 4: So we're gonna ask Monica about it all.
Speaker 1: There she is, there, she is.
Speaker 4: Monica.
Speaker 5: I'm dying right now, you guys, I am dying. This
Speaker 5: is such a surreal moment for me.
Speaker 2: Thank you so much for having me. This is so crazy.
Speaker 1: Wait, why is this a surreal moment for you? Because
Speaker 1: I was about to say the same thing.
Speaker 5: No, I have watched you my entire life, and so
Speaker 5: sitting here with you now is like I literally I
Speaker 5: don't have words. It's honestly, completely surreal. I can't even
Speaker 5: believe this, I really can't.
Speaker 1: The feeling is mutual because I can't. I can't say
Speaker 1: I've watched you my entire life because you just you
Speaker 1: just made me very old. That's the sad part. You
Speaker 1: have probably watched me your entire life. But no one's
Speaker 1: Lauren's ema. She's a real fan. She's like a legit
Speaker 1: fan of the Housewives and knows it. She could write
Speaker 1: the Bible. I have never watched The Housewives, never ever
Speaker 1: have watched an episode, except she said, you have to
Speaker 1: watch Salt Lake City. Oh my god, Monica, I've never
Speaker 1: felt anything like it. From the get go, the cold open,
Speaker 1: the teaser for the entire season. I literally I had
Speaker 1: her posit and I said, I'm in. I am so in,
Speaker 1: so now I am. Actually, I can't say I'm a
Speaker 1: Housewives fan. I'm only a Salt Lake City fan. Actually,
Speaker 1: it's the only it's the only season I watched, so
Speaker 1: I'm a big fan. We absolutely love it.
Speaker 2: I love you guys so much. You have no idea.
Speaker 2: Thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 4: Oh, Monica, thank you for being here. And by the way,
Speaker 4: he's coming to you.
Speaker 3: We're usually together, but he like had another interview today
Speaker 3: and postponed it.
Speaker 2: To talk to you.
Speaker 4: I'm not joking.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, I have commandeered this conference room here
Speaker 1: in dalla Us. Lauren is coming to you from our
Speaker 1: home office in Austin.
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, well, thank you so much.
Speaker 1: So we have to talk about Salt Lake City because
Speaker 1: just let's do a thirty thousand foot overview. Yeah, it
Speaker 1: is my opinion, And again I don't necessarily watch them all,
Speaker 1: but I understand them all. Is Salt Lake City? I
Speaker 1: feel like it's Housewives on steroids. Why is this show
Speaker 1: with this group of women just so spectacular?
Speaker 5: Oh?
Speaker 2: Man, you know, I'm going to be completely honest.
Speaker 5: I don't feel like it was so spectacular until this
Speaker 5: last season.
Speaker 2: And I'm not saying that's because.
Speaker 1: Of me or until you we can say no.
Speaker 5: I genuinely feel like season four was just absolute, like genius.
Speaker 5: I mean, even production, the way they decided to even
Speaker 5: produce everything, It just it works so well and everything
Speaker 5: was so real. I mean, it was one hundred percent authentic,
Speaker 5: and I feel like that's rare. Honestly, I feel like
Speaker 5: that's rare. Nowadays even in reality television, and so viewers
Speaker 5: were getting real reality television and it was just like.
Speaker 2: Holy crap.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Well, and Laurena and I are both steeped in
Speaker 1: reality TV, and I will say there's something, there's some
Speaker 1: validity to what you're saying, and it's I don't want
Speaker 1: to you know, poo poo on anybody else in other seasons,
Speaker 1: but I will say there is a there is a
Speaker 1: lightning in the bottle mentality in a situation in reality
Speaker 1: TV that you can do the best producing in the world.
Speaker 1: Sometimes it just doesn't pan out. Sometimes it comes to
Speaker 1: you in waves, but it does take good producing to
Speaker 1: harness that and make a great season. And clearly that's
Speaker 1: what happened in season four.
Speaker 2: Yes, they did incredible.
Speaker 5: Everyone was amazing and how they spun it was so
Speaker 5: great and it worked. It just honestly, it just worked
Speaker 5: and it was wonderful. Can you talk about that.
Speaker 3: It's interesting to watch with Chris Monica because it's behind
Speaker 3: it scenes so much, so he's watched Our producer told
Speaker 3: him to say that producers came up with that idea,
Speaker 3: and he's very skeptical watching reality TV. So it's interesting
Speaker 3: to me to hear you say that, it was like
Speaker 3: so real.
Speaker 4: Do you expand on that? Like, what do you think
Speaker 4: the producers did so well?
Speaker 5: So I went in there and I said, the only
Speaker 5: way to do this is to be one hundred percent open,
Speaker 5: because I feel like so many people that do reality
Speaker 5: TV they're open to a certain extent, but they hide
Speaker 5: a lot of the stuff that that people relate to,
Speaker 5: right because it's either shameful or it's embarrassing, or you know,
Speaker 5: it's frowned upon, or they're afraid of being judged for it.
Speaker 5: And I think when you have somebody that comes on
Speaker 5: and is ready to just like vomit all of their
Speaker 5: past and you know, just accept it all, it gives
Speaker 5: so much to work with. And then it pulled so
Speaker 5: much out from the other cast members, and then it
Speaker 5: just kind of trickled down and Heather had this amazing
Speaker 5: connection to my ex best friend and lucky her, and
Speaker 5: it just all tied together to make this explosion, you know.
Speaker 3: Okay, So what made me so captivated by you from
Speaker 3: the beginning was that you were you were like, yeah,
Speaker 3: I had an affair, I did this, I did this.
Speaker 3: You just laid out your truth and I thought this
Speaker 3: is the most brilliant debut we've ever seen from anyone
Speaker 3: who's ever joined Real Housewives, because you didn't let anybody
Speaker 3: else search for the skeletons. It seems like you just
Speaker 3: you opened up the closet and said here they are. Yeah,
Speaker 3: you had this big reveal at the end, so.
Speaker 2: To say the least.
Speaker 3: By the way, Yeah, one of the questions I wanted
Speaker 3: to ask you was, you know, if anybody's missed it?
Speaker 3: Basically Monica and Real Housewives of sulis that he delivered
Speaker 3: like the best finale, the most captivating finale in housewives history.
Speaker 3: I would say it was created you reveal the Instagram
Speaker 3: account sooner, like when you were kind of sharing everything
Speaker 3: about yourself.
Speaker 5: Yeah, so it's really simple. I didn't reveal it because
Speaker 5: it wasn't just me. Everything that I did reveal, I'm
Speaker 5: the one that had the affair. I'm the one that
Speaker 5: had had a car repossessed. I'm the one that went
Speaker 5: through a divorce. I'm the one that went through domestic violence.
Speaker 5: You know, there's all these different things that were just
Speaker 5: involving me. This account involved five other people, and we
Speaker 5: all told each other we would never come out with
Speaker 5: it or rat each other out. So I kind of
Speaker 5: felt like, Okay, I wasn't the only one behind that.
Speaker 5: So how do I explain this when there's five other
Speaker 5: people that were involved. Just saying just me, it wouldn't
Speaker 5: even make sense because there were things posted or names created.
Speaker 2: The account wasn't even mine in my name.
Speaker 5: I mean, there were just so many other parts that
Speaker 5: I just felt like, Okay, well, we promised each other
Speaker 5: we wouldn't say anything, so I'm not going to say anything.
Speaker 5: If it was just me, I would have come out
Speaker 5: and said it, But it affected multiple other people's lives
Speaker 5: that I had promised I wouldn't ever discuss.
Speaker 1: Now, Look, I'm gonna admit right now to everybody, I'm
Speaker 1: a Monica defender, So I'm just gonna I'm not unbiased
Speaker 1: here as I enter into this next question. Let the jury.
Speaker 1: Let the jury know what I found interesting at the
Speaker 1: tell all and throughout the season. So when this came
Speaker 1: out and the women got all up in arms and
Speaker 1: were clutching their pearls about how upset they were that
Speaker 1: you were a fan of the show and like somehow
Speaker 1: some sanctity of housewivedom was broken with you coming on
Speaker 1: the show, and I stopped, and again we paused. Lourena
Speaker 1: and I discussed this. I go, yeah, they're all fans
Speaker 1: of the show, like Salt Lake City wasn't the first
Speaker 1: Housewife show. Everybody knew what they were getting into. We're
Speaker 1: all fans of this. There is no naivete. So it
Speaker 1: seemed a little silly that they just took a stance
Speaker 1: on oh, well, she was a fan, Like what, you
Speaker 1: didn't earn your stripes or somehow you didn't belong. That
Speaker 1: seems silly to me. That argument seemed weird.
Speaker 5: It was It was, honestly just these women. Just anything
Speaker 5: I did I could sneeze wrong and it would bother them.
Speaker 2: It didn't matter.
Speaker 5: I could have I could have come on as someone
Speaker 5: famous's wife and they would have had a problem with me.
Speaker 5: I just think it was deeper rooted than that, and
Speaker 5: they just picked up everything. Heather Gay herself has come
Speaker 5: out several times throughout the years and said she is
Speaker 5: the biggest Housewives fan. So it's okay for her to
Speaker 5: say that, but it's not okay for me to have
Speaker 5: been a fan.
Speaker 2: It's just that Boss is out of control.
Speaker 1: Do you think you were always the outlier? I mean again,
Speaker 1: I'm not the biggest fan of everything, but I think
Speaker 1: Laurence kind of filled me in that you don't fit
Speaker 1: that prototype, right, You're not the prototypical housewife without all
Speaker 1: the things you've been through. You even said throughout the
Speaker 1: season that I watched, I don't have the money that
Speaker 1: all of you have. I'm not carrying the bags. I'm
Speaker 1: not doing you know, I'm taking care of my kids
Speaker 1: with my mom. By the way, love the stuff with
Speaker 1: your mom. We're going to get into that in a
Speaker 1: little bit. But do you think you were always the
Speaker 1: outlier from the beginning, and I'm wondering how they approached
Speaker 1: you to be cast in the first place because.
Speaker 2: Of that, Yeah, one hundred percent.
Speaker 5: I think there was always this mentality of she doesn't really.
Speaker 2: Belong and that's fine. You know.
Speaker 5: It's not like they were mean to me in the
Speaker 5: beginning or anything like that. I think, you know, things
Speaker 5: started to change once we started filming. I think they
Speaker 5: were fine until I started filming. But you know there's
Speaker 5: the scene stuff that happened even before we started filming
Speaker 5: that I was like, these women do not want me there?
Speaker 1: Oh you know, yeah, what gave you that vibe?
Speaker 5: Some of them, I'm not gonna name names, literally tried
Speaker 5: to get me fired before we even started filming. So
Speaker 5: I knew what I was going into when I started.
Speaker 5: I knew it was going to be an uphill battle.
Speaker 5: I knew that they you know, they didn't trust me,
Speaker 5: they didn't want me there, And what.
Speaker 4: Was the reason that they were trying to get you fired?
Speaker 5: I don't look, I'm going to be completely honest. I
Speaker 5: have ran this through my mind so many times, like
Speaker 5: why these women hate me so much? I really have
Speaker 5: no idea because at the end of the day, and
Speaker 5: I think I said this, I don't remember where, but
Speaker 5: the only person that actually deserves to really have a
Speaker 5: true problem with me, or hate me or be angry
Speaker 5: at me really is Jenshaw.
Speaker 2: That's it.
Speaker 5: The only person that I really screwed over and oaths
Speaker 5: anything to is jen I did nothing to these women.
Speaker 5: So for them to be like, oh, you lied to us,
Speaker 5: and da da da da.
Speaker 3: Da the argument that they made, and it was hard
Speaker 3: because like on the reunion, we couldn't really see the
Speaker 3: posts that that account had been posting, but it seemed
Speaker 3: like the argument that they made was that the account
Speaker 3: that you and these other people were behind was being
Speaker 3: really negative to them and saying mean things of them
Speaker 3: about them and trying to like tear them down. So
Speaker 3: do you feel like, would you argue that was not
Speaker 3: the case?
Speaker 5: I would one hundred percent argue that was not the case.
Speaker 5: And some of the things that they showed in the
Speaker 5: clips on reunion weren't even from reality Fontige. They were
Speaker 5: from like other Burner pages, And that page was one
Speaker 5: hundred percent I mean, if you go on there like
Speaker 5: we praised the women, we had posts dedicated to like
Speaker 5: Whitney and stuff praising her like, that page was one
Speaker 5: hundred percent awful to Gentshaw and that's it.
Speaker 1: But she went to jail for yes, exactly, didn't.
Speaker 2: Go to jail. He went to prison. There's a difference.
Speaker 1: There is a difference. You're right, you're right, you're right,
Speaker 1: and you go to jail when you get picked up
Speaker 1: for a dui. But how close did you come to
Speaker 1: not doing this then? Did you have were you apprehensive
Speaker 1: and did you regret? You know, because if you know
Speaker 1: going into this it's going to be contentious, yeah, or
Speaker 1: did you ever think? Man, I don't know if these
Speaker 1: women already hate me, I don't know. If I want
Speaker 1: to start taping this.
Speaker 2: Oh hell no.
Speaker 5: I was like it made me want to go on.
Speaker 5: It was like, oh you don't want me there, I'm coming.
Speaker 3: I love Monica right here, well I mean truly Monica,
Speaker 3: Like again, you're great TV. Like I've seen you there's
Speaker 3: There have been other women who have come on the show,
Speaker 3: have said they watched, said they were fans, and then
Speaker 3: they almost like that almost hurt them. You could see
Speaker 3: their wheels turning them thinking about being on TV, and
Speaker 3: you just went all in.
Speaker 4: But I do wonder like, looking back, now, do you
Speaker 4: wish you'd revealed the reality Vontee's thing earlier or not?
Speaker 2: No?
Speaker 5: No, no, because I know for a fact if I had,
Speaker 5: it wouldn't have changed one damn thing.
Speaker 2: Nothing.
Speaker 5: I could have said it the first day. I could
Speaker 5: have said it before filming started.
Speaker 2: They act like, oh, if you came to us and
Speaker 2: you don't know, Like, let's be real.
Speaker 5: You know if I told you the first day or
Speaker 5: the last day on the beach, it would have had.
Speaker 2: The same outcome.
Speaker 1: They were gunning for you no matter what.
Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, it would have had the same result. It
Speaker 5: wouldn't have changed anything. And you know, I think I
Speaker 5: think the outcome was already written in stone a long
Speaker 5: time ago.
Speaker 4: So and what an outcome it was.
Speaker 2: I mean, yeah, yeah, out.
Speaker 3: With the bank, and I'm gonna like kind of put
Speaker 3: on my Chris Harrison hat and quote him.
Speaker 2: Oh okay.
Speaker 3: And we were because I don't know if you remembers this,
Speaker 3: but when we were watching the.
Speaker 4: Finale and then the reunion, he was like, these producers knew.
Speaker 4: Am I taking the words out of your mouth?
Speaker 2: Baby?
Speaker 5: No?
Speaker 1: One hundred percent, She's right, I said, one hundred percent.
Speaker 1: They knew, Yeah, that Monica had been a part of this.
Speaker 1: Nobody's A They're not that dumb, and B they are
Speaker 1: that smart. I would have done that. I would have
Speaker 1: cast you on the Bachelor or Housewives if I had
Speaker 1: known that. For sure? They knew? Can you confirm that?
Speaker 2: So I'm going to be a hundred percent honest.
Speaker 5: I told production, but I did not tell the same
Speaker 5: people because the production people I told when I first
Speaker 5: interviewed were not the same production people from when I
Speaker 5: actually started filming, because it was like a year later.
Speaker 5: So in my head, I'm like, oh, they probably just
Speaker 5: like relayed the information.
Speaker 1: Yes, No, You're like, oh, they they forgot yes, that
Speaker 1: does Monica. That doesn't happen. Life's not that coincidental when
Speaker 1: it comes to reality TV. Of course you told him,
Speaker 1: and of course they passed it on and they kept
Speaker 1: that nugget when they needed it for season.
Speaker 3: Four when he said on the reunion, we would have
Speaker 3: never cast through if we would have.
Speaker 5: Known that, I.
Speaker 4: Again, like I would guess you.
Speaker 5: If Yeah, I know for a fact other housewives have
Speaker 5: burner accounts, or they're feeding blogs information that they want leaked,
Speaker 5: or whatever the case.
Speaker 2: What I did is nothing new.
Speaker 5: It's what's new is I owned it, and I owned
Speaker 5: up to it, and I admitted it, and I said, yeah,
Speaker 5: I did have a part in that, whereas other people
Speaker 5: they can deny, deny, deny, and so it just it
Speaker 5: made it easy for me to just you know.
Speaker 2: Get burned at the stakes. Yeah, yeah, isn't Heather.
Speaker 4: So Heather was.
Speaker 3: Got this information from her hairdresser, who was your friend
Speaker 3: and who also did the account with. You said the
Speaker 3: Heather is still friends with and getting her haircut by
Speaker 3: this person.
Speaker 5: So Tanisia actually doesn't cut hair. All she does is style.
Speaker 2: But I know that Heather.
Speaker 5: Is still good with Tanisha as far as her doing
Speaker 5: her hair. Still, I don't know, and I really don't
Speaker 5: even freaking care, because at the end of the day,
Speaker 5: she and I.
Speaker 2: Were involved in the same exact thing.
Speaker 5: One of us was given a complete pass and one
Speaker 5: of us was actually completely brutalized for it.
Speaker 4: And that's why I asked, because it's like this double standard.
Speaker 5: Yeah, and I just I find it funny because Heather
Speaker 5: can sit there and act like it was this huge,
Speaker 5: big reveal. She knew that, she knew, she knew, she knew,
Speaker 5: she knew, And I knew that it was going to
Speaker 5: come out eventually because I knew that Heather knew.
Speaker 1: Yeah, they needed the scapegoat, they needed the villain, and
Speaker 1: you were it. Yeah, why are you not back and
Speaker 1: so far? Or are you?
Speaker 2: They refused to film with me? No, I'm really not back.
Speaker 1: You're really not back.
Speaker 2: I'm really not.
Speaker 1: I would have lost money on that because you are
Speaker 1: too good of TV. There's two by the way, There's
Speaker 1: so much more story here that we need out of this. No,
Speaker 1: and so the women banded together and said, we're not
Speaker 1: We refuse to tape with Monica. Yeah, And the print
Speaker 1: is that that's what the producers told you of why
Speaker 1: you're not coming back.
Speaker 5: They just said there's not been enough time for the
Speaker 5: women to heal. But how there has literally gone out
Speaker 5: and said, I refuse, I will never film with Monica again.
Speaker 5: She has said that publicly. Lisa Barlow has said that publicly,
Speaker 5: these are not secrets. It doesn't even need to come
Speaker 5: from production. It came from their own mouths.
Speaker 1: By the way, time for everyone to heal from the
Speaker 1: fact that you had a burner account on Instagram? Is
Speaker 1: that where we're healing from.
Speaker 2: I'm like, you.
Speaker 5: Literally got socked in the face, but you're upset about
Speaker 5: a burner account, like it's wild.
Speaker 2: It's so wild to me.
Speaker 1: Yeah, baby, Elsie, do you agree?
Speaker 2: Is it?
Speaker 1: Don't you think there's so much more juice in the story.
Speaker 2: That we need.
Speaker 3: Look, I will you know I I'm not like black
Speaker 3: and white about my fandom and that there are things
Speaker 3: I like. I like Heather, I like Lisa, And when
Speaker 3: I say I like, I like watching them, you know,
Speaker 3: I like. And what I think would be smart for
Speaker 3: the show would have been to film again. So that's
Speaker 3: why I'm like, I would have just leaned into it
Speaker 3: because now it's sort of what's next season going to
Speaker 3: be and this standard has been set so high now
Speaker 3: on Salt Lake City of jen Shaw's arrest and then
Speaker 3: this huge finale last year, So it feels like unless
Speaker 3: you got a really big, you know, like additional skeleton
Speaker 3: in somebody's closet to pull out. Yeah, and also like,
Speaker 3: if you know, if I were them, I would think, well,
Speaker 3: if we keep going on this Monica thing, then none
Speaker 3: of us have to big reveals.
Speaker 1: In Houston exactly exactly.
Speaker 5: Honestly, I feel like somehow so I get it where
Speaker 5: they're like, this is what's good for this show, and
Speaker 5: if we want a successful show, we want to keep
Speaker 5: getting renewed year after year.
Speaker 2: They should have people wanted to see.
Speaker 5: You know, the fallout from that finale. Not to mention
Speaker 5: Heather and I are still suing each other in real life.
Speaker 5: That alone is a crazy storyline. So I really was
Speaker 5: shocked that they did decide not to have me come back.
Speaker 5: But I just you know, when you have people that
Speaker 5: are like, we won't film with her, what am I
Speaker 5: going to do film by myself?
Speaker 1: Yeah? Well you, hey, you and your mom should go
Speaker 1: do a show. I think people will. People will watch
Speaker 1: you and your mom.
Speaker 3: During all that Monica I was just like, oh my gosh,
Speaker 3: I feel for this woman, Like I, where are you
Speaker 3: and your mom at right now?
Speaker 2: We are done? Done, done?
Speaker 1: Oh y'all are speaking.
Speaker 2: I will never talk to her again.
Speaker 1: Oh, don't don't say that. Don't say never.
Speaker 2: Oh no, I'm so serious. I agree with you.
Speaker 4: Don't have to start to your mom again.
Speaker 2: I disagree with Yeah, my mother.
Speaker 5: Actually she took my range Rover Awa again and so
Speaker 5: that's gone. And she took it because she was pissed
Speaker 5: at things that I said at the reunion, and you know,
Speaker 5: she when she came over to take it, it was
Speaker 5: very ugly. The police were called and got involved. I
Speaker 5: called them, and unfortunately she burched into the house and
Speaker 5: did her whole thing. And it happened in front of
Speaker 5: my children, and my youngest daughter was like, why are
Speaker 5: you taking our car? How are we going to get
Speaker 5: to school? And I'm like, I'm done, I'm done. This
Speaker 5: is we are done. And then her behavior on Twitter
Speaker 5: has been absolutely disgusting and so there's there's nothing to salvage. Yeah, well,
Speaker 5: you know, everyone thought that was fake and I know
Speaker 5: that even the women have been like they both deserve it,
Speaker 5: Emmy and I'm like, no, that's real life.
Speaker 2: I know you're not.
Speaker 5: Used to like showing that, but that was my real
Speaker 5: life and my relationship with my mother is completely torched.
Speaker 1: Well I'm sorry, that's that's not a good thing. I'm
Speaker 1: very sorry, and especially when the kids are involved like that.
Speaker 2: So yeah, it was awful.
Speaker 3: I just wanted to see more of what you would
Speaker 3: bring to television because you are captivating to watch.
Speaker 4: You're funny.
Speaker 3: Is there anything though that you wish you had done differently?
Speaker 3: Like sometimes the women say you were like going you
Speaker 3: were like a little too mean in the arguments, and
Speaker 3: I could see where they were coming from on some
Speaker 3: of that.
Speaker 4: Or do you stand by.
Speaker 2: All a little too mean?
Speaker 4: No?
Speaker 5: You No, I completely disagree.
Speaker 2: I think that.
Speaker 5: I mean everyone's like you called Lisa ugly. I'm like,
Speaker 5: she literally called me a Pillsbury dough girl, Like is
Speaker 5: that not mean? So I'm like chubby and roie So
Speaker 5: she can say that, I can't say you're leather and rubbery,
Speaker 5: Like where are we.
Speaker 2: Drawing the line? You know what I mean? I think?
Speaker 5: Also, the Pioneer dinner was nuts because I was made
Speaker 5: to look like a psycho. But you literally have someone
Speaker 5: standing up screaming and throwing a glass in a restaurant.
Speaker 5: But that's okay, you know, a price ski I was
Speaker 5: also made to look like the psychopath, but Angie literally.
Speaker 2: Grabbed food off my plate and put it in my mouth.
Speaker 5: I mean, it's just wild to see, Like, do you
Speaker 5: wish you would have done anything different?
Speaker 2: Like, look what I was dealing with.
Speaker 1: No, No, that's a lot. You were dealing with a lot.
Speaker 1: So I'm just curious as you're talking about this, you're
Speaker 1: not on the show anymore. Yeah, excommunicated from the church,
Speaker 1: you're clearly divorced from your mom. Yeah, what's next for you?
Speaker 1: Because again, as we were just saying, there is more story,
Speaker 1: there's more life to live, but now just in the
Speaker 1: real world, what is next for Monica?
Speaker 5: I don't know, you know, honestly, I really have no idea.
Speaker 5: I think right now I'm trying to just stay busy.
Speaker 5: The fans are insane. They have been absolutely incredible. The
Speaker 5: support has been mind blowing. I know that, you know,
Speaker 5: even people from production and the network have been like,
Speaker 5: it's been a minute since we've had a first year housewife,
Speaker 5: cause this much of an uproar from fans, and I'm
Speaker 5: so grateful for them. So I've just been trying to
Speaker 5: get out and do appearances and see them and it's
Speaker 5: so good for me and they're amazing.
Speaker 2: But you know, maybe start dating and I don't know.
Speaker 2: I don't know.
Speaker 1: I was gonna say, are you open? Are you open
Speaker 1: to finding love? Is it? I mean it's yes. It
Speaker 1: seems like you're in a good spot for that.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I'm definitely open to that for sure. I want
Speaker 5: my bat girls to see that a good relationship.
Speaker 3: A lot of people are dreamcasting you on the next
Speaker 3: season of The Traders.
Speaker 4: They want to see that. Has there been any doing so.
Speaker 5: I'm like, that would be so fun.
Speaker 2: That would be so I do feel like I get
Speaker 2: voted off like the first eliminated. They'd be like, he's
Speaker 2: the Trader.
Speaker 1: Well, I don't know the inner workings of Bravo and
Speaker 1: what Andy has control of over there, but I don't
Speaker 1: think we're done with you. I don't think we've seen
Speaker 1: the last of you.
Speaker 2: I don't know, Chris, just.
Speaker 1: Knowing television again, we all liked as producers, we'd like
Speaker 1: to take our stands and get on our moral high box.
Speaker 1: But when you see ratings and you see a storyline,
Speaker 1: it is so hard to walk away from that. And
Speaker 1: at the end of the day, I think they're going
Speaker 1: to see, wow, we really left some fruit on the
Speaker 1: tree there, and as a producer, you don't want to
Speaker 1: do that. So I don't think we've seen the last
Speaker 1: of you.
Speaker 2: I don't know, we'll see. I mean, I agree with
Speaker 2: you one hundred percent. I was stocked. I think everyone
Speaker 2: was stocked. They're like, how what the hell, like, how
Speaker 2: could they do that? But yeah, we'll see. I don't know.
Speaker 2: I really I don't know.
Speaker 4: Well on that, Nomonica.
Speaker 3: I do have two questions about Like one, I have
Speaker 3: to ask you about the red because again there were
Speaker 3: some people saying, well, like if like you at the reunion,
Speaker 3: you seemed like you shut down, like you were like
Speaker 3: had put a little bit of a wall up, and
Speaker 3: tell me about why that was. And also do you
Speaker 3: look back, like do you think you could have done
Speaker 3: anything differently that would have changed you winding back up
Speaker 3: on the show.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so I one hundred percent shut down.
Speaker 5: I think what people don't understand is there's so much
Speaker 5: adrenaline and anxiety and pressure and stress leading up to
Speaker 5: the reunion and then it is the longest day it
Speaker 5: is such a long day from the second you start
Speaker 5: glam to the second you're done. I mean it was
Speaker 5: like a fifteen hour day. And I had sat up
Speaker 5: on that stage completely alone, with not a soul, by
Speaker 5: me taking hit after a hit, after a hit after
Speaker 5: a hit, and you know, by our ten which would
Speaker 5: have been part three, like I'm I'm done, I'm done. Okay,
Speaker 5: you're yeah, They're like okay, whatever you say, Okay, you're right, whatever,
Speaker 5: do you.
Speaker 2: Have anything to say?
Speaker 5: No? I mean, here's the thing. I went into their
Speaker 5: knowing also the outcome. So I could have gone in
Speaker 5: there on my hands and knees, kissing their feet, and
Speaker 5: they still would have wanted the same result, which was
Speaker 5: me off the show.
Speaker 1: You were the punching bag that day.
Speaker 5: Yeah, there was no apology great enough that I could
Speaker 5: have made to these women, and they said it. Andy
Speaker 5: Cohen asked, you know, was there anything Monica could have said? Nope, nope, nope.
Speaker 2: And I knew that.
Speaker 4: You made the choice to be you and to say
Speaker 4: like stay true to yourself and you know, not grovel
Speaker 4: if it you didn't feel like it was worth anything.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean I think too, what was hard? Is
Speaker 5: I I was I was blindsided. If I'm being completely honest,
Speaker 5: I knew that they were going to play recordings, but
Speaker 5: I I did not know that my best friend gave
Speaker 5: them every effing recording I had ever sent her in
Speaker 5: my life, you know, a rant on a random Tuesday
Speaker 5: venting to my best friend. I had no idea they
Speaker 5: were going to play that. So that happened in the
Speaker 5: first ten minutes. I mean it was right out the gate.
Speaker 5: They were like hipples on a leash, and the second
Speaker 5: they were released, I mean it was a thirteen hour
Speaker 5: blood bath.
Speaker 1: Yeah. And I'm guessing if the producers did their job,
Speaker 1: they prepped the other women.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm sure they knew.
Speaker 1: They were prepped, and they had already been given the tape.
Speaker 3: You were probably like even almost like a little tense,
Speaker 3: like well, what else is going to happen?
Speaker 4: Like you were kind of in fighted, like.
Speaker 5: Yeah, well, and then when I went to show the
Speaker 5: burn book that the way that that was shut down
Speaker 5: or not shown was really frustrating because I had to
Speaker 5: sit there and listen to recordings of myself, but I
Speaker 5: wasn't given an inch to talk about any of the
Speaker 5: stuff that I had do you know what, I mean,
Speaker 5: and I'm not blaming Andy Cohen. I'm not because he
Speaker 5: did give me multiple times that I could have said something.
Speaker 5: But there were a couple different times where I even
Speaker 5: tried to start apologizing and I was immediately cut off.
Speaker 2: So I mean, it was just like, what are we
Speaker 2: doing here?
Speaker 1: Yeah, when you know the deck is stacked against you,
Speaker 1: it's a yeah. You definitely get that feeling of what's
Speaker 1: the point and you kind of shut down.
Speaker 2: Now that you have, you.
Speaker 3: Know, other platforms, Is there anything you want to clear
Speaker 3: up any misconceptions or things edited wrong or portrayed wrong
Speaker 3: from your opinion from the season.
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, girl, we don't have enough time.
Speaker 5: Like, honestly, really and truly, I do think that the
Speaker 5: biggest thing I am owning that I made mistakes. I
Speaker 5: am not saying that what I did was right. I
Speaker 5: got really caught up in my anger and discussed in
Speaker 5: what Genshaw was doing that I did take things too
Speaker 5: far and you know, did these little drive buys and
Speaker 5: you know whatever.
Speaker 2: I shouldn't have done that.
Speaker 5: But I do think too that, like, let's be honest,
Speaker 5: you are sitting with me, who made a mistake, and
Speaker 5: you're sitting with Heather who made a huge mistake, So
Speaker 5: why are we only forgiving one of us?
Speaker 2: I just I did feel like that was that was
Speaker 2: really shitty.
Speaker 5: I think, you know, lying to the officers, lying to lawyers, investigators,
Speaker 5: a network production is kind of more severe.
Speaker 2: But I guess I'm wrong.
Speaker 4: The black Eye is such a good point, Like it's
Speaker 4: such a good point. The Jenshaw literally punched another cast
Speaker 4: member in the face.
Speaker 3: All So, I mean, do you think there's because, like
Speaker 3: Chris just said, Monica, you know, I am sitting there
Speaker 3: with twenty years of reality TV experience. He's thinking, get
Speaker 3: her back on the network, and we want to see
Speaker 3: more of this great TV you bring? Is there any inroad? Like,
Speaker 3: of all the cast members, which of them do you
Speaker 3: think you could come.
Speaker 4: Back in with?
Speaker 2: If at all?
Speaker 5: I actually really feel you know, Mary Cosby and I
Speaker 5: are great. She's amazing, She's been so supportive and wonderful
Speaker 5: to me. Meredith and I think Meredith is actually really
Speaker 5: smart and she is a business woman. I think she
Speaker 5: would be open to, you know, allowing me to come back.
Speaker 5: She and I also didn't have any like crazy major beef.
Speaker 5: And then you know, Whitney and I really didn't have
Speaker 5: any issues. I think those would be the only ones.
Speaker 5: I don't know if like the cast would have to
Speaker 5: change for me to come back, because you have literally
Speaker 5: it's like the reunion that couch refuses the film with me,
Speaker 5: you know, So I don't know how how you make
Speaker 5: that work.
Speaker 2: I don't I don't know. I also didn't think that
Speaker 2: women were allowed to do that on these shows.
Speaker 1: That's the thing I'm shocked to hear that they have
Speaker 1: that much power that they would determine who the cast
Speaker 1: is because they're not gonna because I'll be honest, they're
Speaker 1: not going to determine what the best television is. They're
Speaker 1: going they're going to assume that they're interesting enough and
Speaker 1: people just want to know what they're doing. And that's
Speaker 1: not good television. What's good TV is what we just watched,
Speaker 1: and that is conflict and drama and the good, the bad,
Speaker 1: the ugly. So if you're just casting your own show,
Speaker 1: you're going to play it very safe. You're never going
Speaker 1: to do you would never ever.
Speaker 5: Let any new women in that. I think if you
Speaker 5: had their say, it would just be them and that's
Speaker 5: it till the end of time. And so yeah, one
Speaker 5: hundred percent agree with you.
Speaker 2: I did. I mean, everyone was like, there's no way
Speaker 2: and they got what they wanted. They did.
Speaker 1: Okay, before we let you go, can we go? Yeah, LZ,
Speaker 1: do I have to ask? I know, I know you
Speaker 1: weren't in the van. But there was a scene in
Speaker 1: Palm Springs. Oh he's going way I'm going way back.
Speaker 1: I'm going way way back.
Speaker 2: I love it.
Speaker 1: Can we ask about this or should we just skip it?
Speaker 2: Ask me whatever you want. I'm here, I'm loving it.
Speaker 5: Ask me whatever you want the scene.
Speaker 1: But was it Whitney, Who was it that got so drunk?
Speaker 1: Who was it Heather?
Speaker 2: Heather?
Speaker 4: When Heather was so drunk in the van towards the
Speaker 4: beginning of the season, did she pee puke or both?
Speaker 5: Look, I'm going to tell you that I was not
Speaker 5: in the van when that happened, but I was told
Speaker 5: that it was both.
Speaker 1: Okay, because Lauren and I replayed it several times. I go,
Speaker 1: that's not puke. I think she's literally peeing her pants.
Speaker 1: I think she's being in the van.
Speaker 2: Yeah, one hundred percent.
Speaker 5: I think it's funny because Heather went and did this
Speaker 5: interview where she said Monica shit on the show she
Speaker 5: shit on you know this, she hit on that, and
Speaker 5: she didn't you know, housewives is a caliber and I'm like, girl,
Speaker 5: literally pissed yourself and threw up on national. You have
Speaker 5: bigger issues to worry about.
Speaker 1: Than me, Like come on, no, oh, Monica, I don't
Speaker 1: know what will become of you. But again I'm going
Speaker 1: to say, I think we have not seen the last
Speaker 1: of you. And I was really happy to hear you
Speaker 1: were coming on the most dramatic podcast ever because Louren
Speaker 1: and I desperately wanted to talk and get your side
Speaker 1: of the story. So truly appreciate your time.
Speaker 5: I'm so grateful you guys, Thank you so much. This
Speaker 5: has been just check Bok off the list. This is
Speaker 5: just incredible, So thank you for having me.
Speaker 3: Thank you, and again we want to see you on
Speaker 3: TV again, so wherever it is, know that we will
Speaker 3: be tuning in.
Speaker 4: Thank you, min.
Speaker 2: Thank you you guys. Have a good day.
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening. Follow us on Instagram at the most
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Speaker 1: review and leave us five stars. I'll talk to you
Speaker 1: next time.